


It's Nice to Have You Here

by myrtlebroadbelt



Category: Misfits (TV 2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Established Relationship, F/M, Meet the Family, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21529834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrtlebroadbelt/pseuds/myrtlebroadbelt
Summary: When Nathan joins Kelly and her family for Christmas, they come to an awkward realization.
Relationships: Kelly Bailey/Nathan Young
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	It's Nice to Have You Here

“Two bloody days before Christmas,” Nathan said over the sizzle of iron on bread.

His mum had called him earlier that day from the airport. Jeremy had surprised her with a last-minute holiday to Rome, just the two of them. She actually thought Nathan would be relieved.

“I’m sure there are plenty of fun things you’d rather be doing on Christmas than going to Mass with your mum,” she’d said with a laugh.

Right. Because Jesus was known to throw some real wild birthday parties for himself.

Nathan hadn’t even seen his dad since their heartwarming little breakfast earlier this year, so he sure as fuck wasn’t going to his house. Kelly was heading up to Derby on Christmas Eve, and the rest of the gang obviously had their own families to spend time with.

So that settled it. Nathan was going to spend Christmas alone. Probably with a bottle of booze from the community centre kitchen. Hey, maybe he’d drink himself to death and take a Scrooge-style journey through his past, present, and future. That’d be fun.

“Why don’t you just come with me?” Kelly suggested, ripping Nathan out of his depressive yuletide fantasy — which she had probably overheard.

They were in the locker room, and Nathan was cooking her dinner. It had taken her a while to come around to his unconventional (some would say brilliant) method of sandwich-making. Much like it had taken her a while to come around to the idea of shagging him.

These days, though, she couldn’t get enough — of both the sandwiches and him.

“Where?” Nathan asked her now.

Kelly rolled her eyes. “To Derby.”

“Oh.”

That was a big step, wasn’t it? Meeting the family. 

He’d already met Kelly’s mum. Well, not so much met her as nearly got bludgeoned to death by her handbag when she found him eating Sugar Puffs in her kitchen at one in the morning. 

She had warmed up to him a bit once she realized who he was, only insofar as her daughter’s boyfriend is sure to be at least a few steps above a home intruder. But Kelly’s exes hadn’t exactly been winners, and Nathan hadn’t made a stellar first impression, so she was understandably wary of him.

It freaked him out enough to imagine spending Christmas with Mrs. Bailey. Now Kelly wanted him to spend it with her entire family?

“Wouldn’t I be in the way?” Nathan attempted. “I mean, I’m sure your nan has already measured out all the gravy and everything. She wouldn’t want some stranger barging in and throwing it off.”

“Stranger?” Kelly repeated. “You’re my fucking boyfriend.”

“Yeah, but they don’t know me.”

“They can’t know you if they don’t meet you, dickhead.”

“Look, I don’t wanna ruin your Christmas,” Nathan said plainly. _Like I ruin everything else_ went unspoken, but of course, that didn’t really matter with Kelly.

She looked at him like she couldn’t believe what he was saying, or thinking. “Um, it’d ruin my Christmas to know you were here all by yourself.”

Nathan went quiet, flipping the sandwich a few more times than was probably necessary as he figured out how to respond. Where did she get off saying stuff like that, anyway?

“Fine, I’ll go,” he said at last. He pointed the spatula at her. “But there better be eggnog.”

Kelly smiled at him as he tossed the sandwich onto a plate and delivered it to her where she sat on the bench. He couldn’t resist bending down to plant a few kisses on her neck as she tucked in.

“Fuck, that’s good,” she sighed.

He chuckled. “Someone’s in the mood.”

“I meant the sandwich.”

Nathan straightened up and shrugged. “I’ll take it,” he said, and turned back to the ironing board.

  
  


“I hope you’re joking,” Kelly said when Nathan showed up at her flat the next day.

He hadn’t had time to change after his morning shift handing out flyers. With his duffel bag slung over one shoulder, he looked so convincing that no fewer than five kids had demanded he give them their presents early.

“All right, I’ll take off the beard,” Nathan said, pulling it away from his face. It itched like a bastard anyway.

Kelly’s eyes traveled downward. Sighing, Nathan reached under his coat and, with some difficulty, pulled out his fake belly. He stuffed it, along with the beard, in his bag.

“I might need them,” he said defensively when Kelly gave him a look. “And don’t make me take off the rest — it’s so cozy. Here, feel it.”

He leaned toward her, and she begrudgingly ran a hand over the collar of his coat. In an instant, her eyebrows shot up in pleasant surprise.

“Huh, what did I tell you?” Nathan said with a grin. “Wanna cuddle on the train?”

Kelly chewed her lip, considering him. “Ugh, fine.”

Nathan lifted a fist in triumph, and they headed out.

Mrs. Bailey had gone up the day before to help with preparations, while Kelly took one last shift cleaning for the council. Nathan was relieved for that, as the idea of taking a two-hour train ride with his girlfriend’s mum made him want to shit himself. 

He tried not to think about the fact that he was about to spend nearly three days with her, and just about everyone else in Kelly’s life. 

Instead, he focused on Kelly’s head on his shoulder; the sound of the pages flipping as they looked through the gossip magazine she’d bought before they boarded; how she shook with laughter against him as he speculated about everyone’s plastic surgery; the way she smelled, of flowery shampoo and cigarettes.

Yeah, he could have stayed on that train forever.

When they arrived in Derby, Kelly’s older brother Joe picked them up at the station. Nathan could see the resemblance. He couldn’t see it as much with Kelly’s mum, so he figured they must have taken after their dad, who died when Kelly was twelve.

(From what she had told Nathan, it sounded like they got on pretty well. And wasn’t that always the way? The good ones kicked the bucket early, while the shitty ones stuck around, absent but not absent enough.)

“Nice outfit,” Joe told Nathan through the open car window.

Nathan opened his mouth, expecting a clever response to float its way out, but what emerged instead was an awkward laugh. He reached up and pulled off his hat, suddenly feeling self-conscious. 

“Whoa,” said Joe, staring at him. “Did you know you look just like …” He trailed off, glancing at Kelly and then back to Nathan. “Um, just like I thought you would,” he finished, forcing a smile.

“Why’re you being so weird?” Kelly asked him, taking her suitcase around to the boot.

Nathan followed after her with his own bag, and then proceeded to shift uncertainly between the passenger-side door and the back seat. Normally, he’d go straight for shotgun, but he’d never been driven by his girlfriend’s brother before.

(He had a feeling the word _girlfriend’s_ was going to be banging around his head a lot these next few days — girlfriend’s mum, girlfriend’s brother, girlfriend’s nan’s house, girlfriend’s Christmas that he couldn’t ruin or else she might not want to be his girlfriend anymore.)

Kelly made a face at him. “Why’re _you_ being so weird?” she asked, and climbed into the back seat without discussion.

Nathan figured that both of them sitting in the back would make Joe seem too much like a cab driver, so he opened the passenger side.

The car was an I’ve-got-kids sort of messy. Nathan nearly crushed a stuffed bunny under his foot as he stepped in, and he had to sweep a few crayons onto the floor before he sat down on the torn upholstery. The heating was on full blast, and the radio was tuned to a Christmas station.

“So, you two met doing community service?” Joe said as they pulled away from the station. “Nice one. Something to tell the grandchildren.”

“Like knocking a girl up at sixteen?” Kelly retorted.

“Hey, I stuck around, didn’t I?”

“Fucking right you did.” There was a smile in her voice as she added, “Aw, I can’t wait to see them.”

They chatted for a while about Kelly’s niece and nephew, while Nathan fumbled under the seat belt to unbutton his coat. There was a feeling in his stomach that he usually only got when he was waking up in a coffin or facing a psycho with a chainsaw.

He really needed to pull himself together. It was just Christmas with Kelly’s family. The stuff of warm and fuzzy made-for-TV films. Nothing to worry about. Even if there was a distinct possibility they would all hate him.

Eventually, Joe nodded in Nathan’s direction. “Does this one talk?” 

“Only all the time,” Kelly said, reaching forward to gently squeeze Nathan’s shoulder. “I think you broke him.”

“Hey, Sir Elton John was nice enough to welcome us to his Christmas song, so I’m being polite and listening to it,” Nathan said, gesturing to the stereo. “Show some respect.”

Phew. That felt better. 

He noticed Kelly squirming in the wing mirror. “Fuck, I should have gone to the toilet at the station,” she said. 

She had drunk the largest hot chocolate known to mankind while they were waiting for the train earlier. Nathan was surprised she had made it this long without pissing herself.

As soon as Joe pulled up in front of the house, Kelly scrambled out of the car. “Nathan, get my suitcase!” she called as she pushed through the door and disappeared inside.

Joe helped Nathan get the bags out of the boot, then returned to the driver’s seat.

“I’m off to collect my own people,” he said over his shoulder. “See you in a bit.”

And with that, he drove away, leaving Nathan alone on the pavement, duffel bag over his shoulder and Kelly’s pink rolling suitcase beside him. She had left the door open on her way in, and he could hear laughter and loud conversation from inside. 

With a gulp, Nathan made his way into the house, dropping the bags onto the thick carpeting. He caught a whiff of something delicious and buttery and full of sugar, which seemed almost too on-the-nose for walking into someone’s nan’s house at Christmas.

For a second, he thought maybe he should just stand there by the door until Kelly was done in the bathroom. Then he decided that would look totally pathetic, so he forced his balls out of hiding and followed the smell into the kitchen.

Mrs. Bailey was standing at the counter rolling out dough. There was also a much older woman with stiff white hair, who Nathan figured was Kelly’s nan. She was putting something in the oven when she noticed him in the doorway.

“Andrew!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know you’d be coming.”

Nathan blinked. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to play along or not. Who the fuck was Andrew? He hoped it wasn’t her dead husband, because he was not prepared to deal with another old lady putting the moves on him.

“Well, it was sort of a last-minute thing,” Nathan said, deciding not to correct her. “It’s all right if you don’t have a chair for me. I’ll just curl up at Kelly’s feet, and she can feed me scraps.”

The old woman scrunched up her face, quadrupling her wrinkles. “Why are you talking with that funny accent, Andrew?”

At this point, Mrs. Bailey looked up from her dough. “Mum, that’s not Andrew,” she explained. “That’s Nathan, Kelly’s boyfriend.”

“What happened to that other lad?” Kelly’s nan wondered. “Lee, was it?”

Nathan’s jaw clenched. “Didn’t you hear?” he said on impulse. “I won a contest to replace him. People called in and voted. It was bigger than _X Factor_.”

Kelly’s nan gave him a blank look, but he caught Mrs. Bailey cracking a smile as she returned to her rolling. Behold, a Christmas miracle!

He felt a hand on his back then, and let out a sigh of relief to discover Kelly standing next to him. Her nan was just as happy to see her, letting out a squeal of delight and beckoning her over for a hug.

Nathan huffed. Apparently dear Andrew wasn’t deserving of a hug. Whatever.

“Kel, get over here and help me with this,” said Mrs. Bailey, brandishing a star-shaped cookie cutter.

Kelly groaned and gave Nathan an apologetic look. “My cousins are in the other room if you wanna say hi.”

Nathan briefly contemplated offering to help in the kitchen, but he could only see that ending in disaster. So he waved goodbye and followed the sound of loud voices into the living room.

There were three young guys on the sofa, playing a video game they had hooked up to the boxy, ancient-looking TV. One of them — a spotty kid with chewed-off fringe — stood up and declared that he was getting a drink. When he caught sight of Nathan, his face lit up like he recognized him.

“Andrew!” he whooped, punching Nathan on the arm. “You get out early, mate?”

Oh, so now this Andrew guy was an ex-con? This had to be a prank — probably something to do with him never remembering people’s names.

“Okay, very funny,” Nathan said. “So did Kelly call ahead, or what? No, wait, don’t tell me. I bet that whole ‘I’m gonna piss myself’ thing was an act, right? She was in here talking to you the whole time.”

Cousin Whatshisface squinted at him. “Why’re you talking with that accent?”

“Because I’m Nathan,” he replied, squinting right back.

“Who?”

“Nathan? Kelly’s boyfriend?” He was starting to feel like maybe he needed to look in a mirror to make sure.

“Oh. Sorry, mate. You look just like Andrew.”

If this was a prank, these people were very committed.

“Fine, I’ll bite,” Nathan began, preparing to ask who this mysterious Andrew was. But he was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Kelly’s niece and nephew.

They came soaring into the living room, letting their jackets fall to the floor behind them as they made a beeline for the Christmas tree. This earned groans from the guys on the sofa for blocking their view of the TV.

Joe entered the room a few seconds later with his wife, who looked like she was six years overdue for a nap. They called the kids away from their current occupation examining the gifts under the tree. The sofa guys groaned all over again as they walked by in the other direction.

They were twins — a girl and a boy, so not the spooky _Shining_ type. Joe put a hand on each of their blond heads and introduced them to Nathan as Ella and Cameron. 

“Why’re you dressed as Santa?” Ella asked, without so much as a _nice to meet you_.

Nathan stared down at the two of them with his hands on his hips. “How do you know I’m _not_ Santa?”

They gave him matching looks straight out of Kelly’s repertoire, thereby making it impossible for Nathan to dislike them.

“All right, fine,” he conceded. “But if I had the beard on, you’d be singing a different tune.”

When he glanced up again, Joe and his wife were on their way out of the room. Oh, so now he was Andrew the ex-con _and_ babysitter? Fuck that.

“Wanna color with us?” Cameron asked, dragging Nathan’s attention back down to kid-height.

That’s how he ended up sprawled on the living room carpet, hunched over a cheap coloring book and filling in a picture of a Christmas tree with a worn-down green crayon. 

After a few minutes, Cameron looked up from his own coloring. “Can I touch your hair?”

“Sure, man. Have at it,” Nathan said, bowing his head and letting the kid pull on the curls until they sprang back.

More people filtered into the house while they sat there. A few of them introduced themselves, while the rest simply tossed their outerwear onto the nearest surface and joined the video game party, or followed the smells into the kitchen. 

It didn’t take long for the name Andrew to come up again.

Nathan was in the midst of coloring in the star at the top of his tree when he heard a scream behind him. Before he could even look up, someone was grabbing him by his ears and repeatedly kissing the top of his head. 

When his assailant finally loosened their grip, Nathan twisted around and made eye contact with a middle-aged woman he’d never seen before.

“Oh!” she said with surprise, and her expression fell. Then she clutched a hand to her chest and laughed, her jewelry clanging. “Sorry, love. You look just like my Andrew. Thought for a second you showed up to surprise me.”

The woman patted him on the head and retreated to the kitchen, cackling all the way. When she was gone, Nathan turned back to the kids, who hardly seemed fazed.

“Hey, do either of you know who Andrew is?”

“Uh-huh,” said Ella, who was peeling the paper off a purple crayon. “He goes to our school.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “How old is he?”

“Six and a half.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s a different Andrew,” he said, and returned to his coloring.

Eventually, Kelly emerged from the kitchen with an adorable smudge of flour on her chin. Nathan licked his thumb and wiped it away, earning him a _piss off_ before the inevitable smile.

The food followed soon after — biscuits and cake and mince pies, as well as more than a few bits from the freezer, all laid out on plates for everyone to pick at.

“Now it’s a party,” Nathan said when the chicken nuggets came out.

He wasn’t used to big family shindigs like this — at least not since he was a kid. All of his mum’s relatives were in Ireland, and he didn’t have much interest in seeing his dad’s side of the family after the divorce. If it was hard for him to remember people’s names, it was even harder to remember how everyone was related.

But as the evening wore on, he found that it didn’t really matter. After all, half of them didn’t remember his name, either — although they thankfully stopped calling him Andrew, to the point that he forgot to even wonder about it anymore.

They still included him in their game of charades, and listened to his theory about the kid from _Home Alone_ growing up to be a serial killer. And when he put on the rest of his Santa costume and pretended to crawl out of the fireplace, they actually laughed — even the ones who _weren’t_ eggnog-drunk. 

It made Nathan feel all warm and fuzzy. Sure, a bottle of stolen booze could have done that, too. But he liked this version better.

  
  


He and Kelly stayed the night on the sofa bed in the living room. Nathan was in the midst of removing his Santa trousers when he remembered the question he had been meaning to ask all day.

“Hey, who’s Andrew?”

Kelly was busy taking her earrings out. “What?”

“A bunch of people today thought I was some guy called Andrew. Someone devastatingly handsome, I assume?”

“I’ve got a cousin called Andrew,” Kelly said, moving on to her necklaces. “Haven’t seen him in a few years. Think he’s in prison.” She paused, thinking. “Or he moved to France. Can’t remember.”

“Prison,” Nathan said, then followed up on the most important part of her response: “You said he’s your cousin?”

“Yeah.”

And just like that, Nathan’s mind flashed back to months ago, on the mezzanine, his hand down Kelly’s jeans. 

_All wrong. When you just know. Mates._

Kelly didn’t seem to be having the same disturbing epiphany as him. Instead, she was blissfully burrowing under the blanket and adjusting the pillow beneath her head. Nathan considered not saying anything, but she would probably hear him thinking about it all night anyway, so why not just get it out now?

“So,” he began, sitting next to her on the bed, “you’re saying you’ve got a cousin who looks like me.” He waited for a reaction, and when none arrived, he repeated himself: “A cousin. A _cousin_.”

Kelly looked up at him like he was nuts. “Why do you keep saying cous— oh, fuck.”

“There it is.”

She put a hand over her eyes. “Shit, that’s what it was.”

Nathan didn’t know whether he should be relieved that it apparently hadn’t all been down to him, or concerned that he bore such a striking resemblance to his girlfriend’s cousin as to be mistaken for him. By multiple people. Including, he realized now, Andrew’s own mother.

“How’d you not figure it out before this?” Nathan wondered. “Because most of your family clocked it as soon as they saw me.”

“I don’t know,” Kelly whined. “I told you, I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“So, what, you just got the general _feeling_ that you were getting fingered by your cousin, but not specifically the cousin who looks like me?”

“He doesn’t look _that_ much like you,” she insisted, pretty unconvincingly. “I mean, yeah, he’s got … hair.”

“That’s the only similarity? That we both have hair?”

Kelly grimaced, like she was afraid to say whatever she was thinking. Nathan didn’t need to be a mind reader to figure it out.

“It’s gorgeously curly hair, isn’t it?”

She nodded, then flopped over and buried her face in the pillow.

“Well, lots of people have curly hair,” Nathan offered. “Alisha’s got curly hair. You’re not thinking of her when we shag, are you?” His eyes widened. “Wait a minute, _are_ you? ‘Cause, I mean, if you’re into that, maybe we could …”

Kelly turned her head and glared at him.

“Right. Not a good time.”

Well, this was just great. Here he was worried about saying or doing the wrong thing in front of Kelly’s family, and it turned out all he had to do to screw things up was show his beautiful cousinly face.

“Look, can I at least see a photo of this guy?” he asked after a moment. “I wanna know what my competition looks like.”

Kelly swatted him on the arm for that one, but she still got out of bed and went looking for a photo album.

Nathan lay back and stared at the ceiling while she rummaged through a nearby cupboard. This was no big deal, really. Lots of people used to marry their cousins, in the old days, and everybody was fine with it.

And anyway, it’s not like they were actual cousins. Better to shag someone who looks like your cousin, but isn’t your cousin, than to actually shag your cousin. 

To be honest, though, it wasn’t so much the idea of Kelly fancying her cousin that worried him. It was more the possibility that, now that she knew why things had felt so weird all those months ago, she wouldn’t want to be with him anymore.

“Here he is,” Kelly said suddenly. She returned to the bed and placed an open photo album in Nathan’s lap. He sat up and looked at the photo she was pointing to.

Nathan recognized Kelly’s brother and a couple of her other cousins, all raising pints in a pub. By process of elimination, he determined that the lad on the far left, who was wearing a Derby County football shirt and a scowl, was Andrew.

He brought the album closer to his face, confused. “ _This_ is Andrew?”

“Yeah, why?”

“This guy looks nothing like me!”

“Yeah?” Kelly asked, looking cautiously relieved.

“Is your family face blind?” Nathan marveled. “Sure, there’s the hair, but his doesn’t have nearly as much bounce as mine.” He shook his head to demonstrate. “I’d call that more of a wave than a curl, if you wanna get technical. But other than that, we’re completely different.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Here, look.” Nathan covered Andrew’s hair with his thumb.

Kelly squinted down at the photo. “Huh. I guess you’re right,” she said, as if she hadn’t actually seen him before. “I mostly just remembered the hair.”

“Oh, so all curly-haired people look the same, then?” Nathan slapped the photo album shut. “That’s pretty racist of you, Kelly.”

She shrugged. “We’ve all got straight hair. It stands out.”

“Hm. I suppose you do,” Nathan said, recalling what everyone in her family had happening on their heads — and how fascinated her nephew was by what was happening on his. 

So that was that. The mystery of Cousin Andrew and the Curly Hair had been solved. Nathan was glad to cross _incest_ off the list of potential threats to their relationship. 

That is, until he noticed Kelly’s face.

“What is it?” he asked uneasily.

Her brow was furrowed. “I just can’t figure out what it was that stopped me feeling weird about it.” 

Okay, so maybe there were still a few loose ends to tie up.

At least it gave Nathan an excuse to mentally revisit the past couple of months. His eyes glazed over and a smile tugged at his lips as he thought back. And then, suddenly, there it was, like the pot of gold at the end of a horny rainbow — the answer.

He snapped his fingers. “The first time we shagged was Halloween,” he said. “My hair was slicked back because I was dressed as Dracula, remember? It probably turned off the cousin alarms in your brain.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kelly said, seeming pretty satisfied by that explanation. “I must’ve just gotten used to it after that.”

“Aw, you flatter me.”

She smiled, getting up to put the album back. “Let’s just go to sleep, yeah?”

“Yeah, good idea. This place isn’t exactly putting me in the mood, anyway.” Nathan shuddered. “I think Ruth had this exact same bedspread.”

“Nathan. I wasn’t about to shag you at my nan’s house.”

“Right. Obviously.”

They slid under the covers, and Kelly switched off the lamp, leaving the room dark save for the multi-color glow of the lights on the Christmas tree. Kelly spent a few minutes kicking away Nathan’s ice-cold feet before they finally got comfortable, lying face to face.

“So,” Nathan said. “What did everyone _think_ of me today?” He emphasized _think_ with a wink, which was pointless since Kelly had her eyes closed.

She still got his meaning. “My nan doesn’t get your jokes,” she said to start.

“Well, she’s not my target audience,” Nathan replied huffily.

“The twins think you’re weird, but like, in a good way,” Kelly continued. “Also that you’re shit at coloring.”

“They need better crayons. Would it kill your brother to splurge on Crayola?”

“You should bring some next time.”

Nathan paused. “Next time?”

“Yeah. You know. Next time we visit.”

Kelly said _we_ , so casual, and Nathan’s stomach did something he couldn’t really describe, except to say that it was the opposite of what it did when he was waking up in a coffin or facing a psycho with a chainsaw. 

He didn’t quite know what he had expected her to say. Maybe something closer to _the next time_ I _visit, and you can tag along too if you want_.

Instead, there was just _we_. Them. Together. Two for one. Not sold separately.

“Sure,” he answered, gulping down whatever was in his throat and moving on. “What about your mum, then? Have I finally won her over?”

Kelly laughed through her nose. “She’s liked you for a while now, but she won’t say so.”

“Ah,” Nathan said smugly, “so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“Who says I like you?” she deadpanned, even as she reached out to stroke his face.

He smiled and slid an arm around her waist. “Just a hunch.”

They went quiet then, starting to drift off. _I’m glad I came_ , Nathan thought after a few minutes, too tired to open his mouth.

Kelly hummed, and to him it sounded a lot like _Me too_.

  
  


Their visions of sugar plums were rudely interrupted when a pack of Kelly’s relatives barged into the living room at the crack of dawn ready to open gifts. Nathan shot upright at the sudden noise, disoriented and briefly wondering if he’d died in his sleep.

Beside him, Kelly just groaned and pulled the blanket over her head. Once people started making themselves comfortable at the foot of the mattress, however, she got up and started for the door, grumbling about needing to brush her teeth.

Nathan tossed away the covers and hurried after her. He figured leaving the room would make it less obvious that he had no gifts to offer.

(Hey. He was broke, and it was short notice, okay?)

When he and Kelly reached the doorway, a chorus of _ooh_ s erupted around them, and they stopped. Nathan glanced down — nope, no morning wood. He looked at Kelly. Half her hair had fallen out of its ponytail while she slept, but her tits hadn’t popped out of her top or anything.

“Look up!” cried one of her cousins, so they did.

Of course. Mistletoe.

Nathan wasn’t one to say no to that. He grinned down at Kelly, who rolled her eyes and crooked one finger in a _come here_ gesture. They kept it chaste, but that didn’t stop the family from clapping and whistling.

All except for one guy — an uncle type who Nathan didn’t remember seeing the day before. He looked so shocked, you’d think Kelly had just given Nathan a blowjob.

“Wow,” Uncle Whoever said when the applause died down. “Keeping things in the family, are we?”

“We ain’t cousins!” Kelly shouted, and then, as if to further prove her point, she grabbed Nathan by the front of his T-shirt and planted another one on him, this time with tongue.

Well. If that wasn’t enough to convince them, then Christmas dinner was about to be very awkward.

**Author's Note:**

> So one day I was like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Kelly said hooking up with Nathan was like hooking up with her cousin because it turns out she has a cousin who looks like him?” And then I wrote an entire fic around it, because I can.
> 
> Obviously I picture Kelly’s brother being played by Michael Socha.
> 
> Title’s from the criminally underrated ["Step Into Christmas"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbRtGMm96F8) by Elton John.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated. I'm also on [tumblr](https://myrtlebroadbelt.tumblr.com/).


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